Many
were hoping that once Barack Obama was out of office we would
see less of this Big Brother surveillance nonsense, but instead
it seems to be getting even worse.

In
fact, the Department of Homeland Security has just announced
that it intends to compile a comprehensive list of hundreds of
thousands of “journalists, editors, correspondents, social
media influencers, bloggers etc.”, and collect any
“information that could be relevant” about them.

So
if you have a website, an important blog or you are just very
active on social media, the Department of Homeland Security is
going to put you on a list and will start collecting information
about you. The DHS has already announced that it will hire a
contractor to aid in monitoring media coverage, and they will
definitely need plenty of help because it is going to be a
very big job…

As
part of its “media monitoring,” the DHS seeks to track more
than 290,000 global news sources as well as
social media in over 100 languages, including Arabic, Chinese
and Russian, for instant translation into English. The
successful contracting company will have “24/7 access to a
password protected, media influencer database, including
journalists, editors, correspondents, social media influencers,
bloggers etc.” in order to “identify any and all media coverage
related to the Department of Homeland Security or a particular
event.”

“Any
and all media coverage,” as you might imagine, is quite broad
and includes “online, print, broadcast, cable, radio, trade and
industry publications, local sources, national/international
outlets, traditional news sources, and social media.”

If
this sounds extremely creepy to you, that is because it is
extremely creepy.

As Gizmodonoted,
the DHS’ vagueness is also a concern. It leaves itself an
opening for collecting “any
other information that could be relevant” about
these influencers, and there’s no hint as to what that could be.

Is
it strictly functional information like work histories, or
sensitive data that could be abused? Either way, the
database could be troublesome for bloggers and social media
stars who aren’t usually under such close government scrutiny.

This
is one of the reasons why I wanted to get to Washington. This
kind of Orwellian monitoring of our freedoms is unnecessary, it
is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars, and it violates our
most basic freedoms.

So
why does the Department of Homeland Security need to do this?

The
explanation that they are giving the public is extremely
week. The following comes from Forbes…

DHS
says the “NPPD/OUS [National Protection and Programs
Directorate/Office of the Under Secretary] has a critical need
to incorporate these functions into their programs in order to
better reach Federal, state, local, tribal and private
partners.” Who knows what that means, but the document also
states the NPPD’s mission is “to protect and enhance the
resilience of the nation’s physical and cyberinfrastructure.”

But
we are not supposed to ask questions about government programs
such as this.

If
you find yourself skeptical of this proposal of mass state
monitoring of the press, consider yourself a bonafide member
of the “tinfoil hat wearing, black helicopter conspiracy
theorists,” DHS representative Tyler Houlton said
Friday. It’s all very routine, he argued, casting the
project as an innocent means of “monitoring current
events.” Just
shut up and let us do this, crackpots.

That
kind of response should make all of us very angry.

If
the government is going to monitor us and put our information in a
database, we should have the right to ask questions.

Freedom
of speech is one of our most foundational rights, and many are
concerned that “monitoring and tracking” are initial steps that
could lead to a significant crackdown on Internet activity.
Just check out what is about to happen over
in Europe. The Internet has made it possible for
ordinary people to communicate with one another on a massive
scale, and any efforts by national governments to interfere with
that must be greatly resisted.

Unfortunately,
it appears that this new Department of Homeland Security program
is moving ahead rapidly. In
fact, it
is being reported that seven different companies have
“already expressed interest” in participating…

Seven
companies, mainly minority- or women-owned small businesses,
have already expressed interest in becoming a vendor for the
contract, according to the FedBizOpps web site.

All
it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to be nothing.
Please spread word about this creepy new surveillance program to
everyone that you know, because what they are doing is not right.